The king took immediate advantage of this law to inquire of Convocation whether the pope could authorize a man to marry his brother’s widow. Out of sixty-six present, and one hundred and ninety-seven who voted by proxy, there were only nineteen in the Upper House who voted against the king. The opposition was stronger in the Lower House; but even this agreed with the other house in declaring that Pope Julius II. had exceeded his authority in giving Henry a dispensation, and that the marriage, was consequently null from the very first. [Sidenote: Cranmer’s Letter.] Nothing remained now but to proceed to the divorce. On the 11th of April, two days before Easter, Cranmer, as archbishop, wrote a letter to the king, in which he set forth, that desiring to fill the office of Archbishop of Canterbury, ‘according to the laws of God and Holy Church, for the relief of the grievances and infirmities of the people, God’s subjects and yours in spiritual causes,’[275] he prayed his Majesty’s favor for that office.[276] Cranmer did not decline the royal intervention, but he avoided confounding spiritual with temporal affairs.[277] Henry, who was doubtless waiting impatiently for this letter, was alarmed as he read the words ‘according to the laws of God and Holy Church.’ God and the Church.... Well! but what of the king and the royal supremacy? The primate seemed to assert the right of acting _proprio motu_, and, while asking the king’s favor, to be doing a simple act of courtesy.... Did the Church of England claim to take the pontiff’s place and station, and leave the king aside?... That was not what Henry meant. Tired of the pretensions of the Pope of Rome, would he suffer a pope on a small scale at his side? He intended to be master in his own kingdom—master of everything. The letter must be modified, and this Henry intimated to Cranmer. That day or the next after the one on which this letter had been written there was a great festival at court in honor of Anne Boleyn. ‘Queen Anne that evening went in state to her closet openly as queen,’ says Hall. It was probably during this festival that the king, taking the prelate aside, desired him to suppress the unwelcome passage. The idea suggested by an eminent historian, that Cranmer sent both the letters together to Henry that he might choose which he would prefer, seems to me inadmissible. Cranmer, as it would appear, submitted, waiting for better days. On returning to Lambeth, he recopied his letter, omitting the words which had been pointed out. Not content with asking the king’s _favor_, he desired his _license_, his authorization to proceed. He dated his second letter the same day, and sent it to his master, who was satisfied with it.[278]